DRIVING MUM
Review by Marinell Haegelin
Driving Mum is a unique pilgrimage into past regrets and discovery that Icelandic writer-director Hilmar Oddsson envisions with darkly edged redemptive aplomb . Living on the remote barren edge of northern Iceland with nary a neighbor in 1980 , the domineering Mama ( Kristbjörg Kjeld ) and scruffy son ( Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson ) occupy time knitted to their livelihood while listening to taped radio shows that , invariably , Jón changes . They sell the well-known Icelandic lopapeysa sweaters abroad . Every so often , a small boat putters across the fjord , making or taking deliveries . Mama concurrently nags , bosses , and worries about Jón ; he escapes to the rugged outdoors with his camera . An avid amateur photographer , he develops and prints the black and white photographs .
For reasons known only to Mama , she demands that Jón photograph her at Gullfoss Waterfall , even choosing the outfit to wear . Jón wearily , warily agrees . Then she dies . Bound by his word , he dresses and fixes her hair before roping her into the back seat . He coaxes Bresnef the dog ( Dreki [ means dragon in Icelandic ]) into the rattletrap car , who rides shotgun with Mama upright in the back seat . Coming hood to hood with a van of hippies on a snakelike rural road , the tetchy dyed-in-the-wool bachelor silently snaps photos , until they painstakingly back up . Stopping at an eatery , Jón ’ s incoherency is misjudged and , one might say , rewarded . Jón begins adapting to the outside world accompanied by an illusory performance troupe and melodious choir . Surprises spring up along the way , although the biggest is the backseat-driver ’ s verbiage that veers from giving directions to self-justifying laments , driving her son to distraction , and he makes a decision after meeting long-ago friend Bergdís ( Hera Hilmar ). She got her way , now he ’ ll get his own . Jón and Bresnef ’ s adventures lead to revelations leading to unforeseen solutions .
© PROKINO FILMVERLEIH
DRIVING MUM
Á FERÐ MEÐ MÖMMU
ICELAND | ESTONIA 2022 OPENED DECEMBER 7 , 2023
DIRECTED BY HILMAR ODDSSON
WRITING CREDITS : HILMAR ODDSSON
PRINCIPAL ACTORS : ÞRÖSTUR LEÓ GUNNARSSON , KRISTBJÖRG
KJELD , TÓMAS LEMARQUIS , ARNMUNDUR ERNST BJÖRNSSON ,
PÁLMI GESTSSON
Kjeld and Gunnarsson are phenomenally well-suited to their robust characters , as is Dreki — a scene-stealer rather than a dragon — along with the strong supporting cast . Oddsson ’ s laconic screenplay and Óttar Guðnason ’ s communicative cinematography , shrewdly edited by Hendrik Mägar , create a tantalizing bizarreness for audiences , e . g ., the tangled yarn scene viewed from floor height tells us volumes . Tõnu Kõrvits ’ s imaginative soundtrack harmonizes a wide-range of instruments — illustrative of the scope of emotions at play — and the fanciful choir make for a dashing duet . Jón and Bresnef ’ s revelations are harbingers of solutions . Letting go , whether with a flick of the hand or a raised eyebrow , can usher in new beginnings and an end . 112 minutes
CURRENTS 57